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Carrier (StarCraft II)/Development
The carrier was a unit that underwent much theoretical development during the development of StarCraft II. The carrier was originally replaced by the tempest during the development of StarCraft II but was brought back due to "an emotional connection with the original unit."StarCraft Legacy Staff. 2007-08-09. BlizzCon 2007 First Protoss Impressions. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-05-18. Although it keeps the structural design of the tempest, the 'light' color scheme has been maintained.Karune. 2008-04-08. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 34. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-04-08 The carrier could produce escorts. This ability was removed in later builds.StarCraft Legacy staff. 2009-04-04. WWI 08 Coverage - Protoss Units. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-06-22. *'Manufacture Escorts' **Carriers can manufacture up to four escorts. **Strike fighter escorts cost resources (and about one second) to build and lasted only 45 seconds, but added a decent amount of firepower to a carriers attack. A carrier could have a maximum of 4 escorts. Escorts were given attack orders to focus-fire on whatever the carrier was attacking and they could be destroyed independently of the carrier or each other. The cost for these escorts would be significant enough to where players would not want to just have the max number all of the time, as that would bleed one's economy needlessly. Thus, players would have to pick and choose their battles in where they wanted the full force of the protoss fleet present. Heart of the Swarm Development In Heart of the Swarm, the carrier was not available in early multiplayer development.2011-10-21. Blizzard Cuts and Adds StarCraft II Units. IGN. Accessed 2011-10-21. It came back during the beta.Cloaken. 2012-09-14. Balance Update #2 9/14/2012. Battle.net, accessed on 2012-09-14 Beta files indicate that it once had the ability to manufacture scarabs.Blizzard Entertainment. Heart of the Swarm beta Map Editor. (Activision Blizzard) (in English). September 4, 2012 The main issue with the carrier is that its role effectively overlaps with the colossus. Both are siege range units, but the colossus is splash damage, is a lot faster in coming into play, is less of a risk to bring out, and because of how common colossi are in protoss games, counter units such as corruptors or Vikings are already available, making carriers even less viable. The carrier could be buffed to address these issues, but it was decided that a more effective solution was to provide a replacement via the tempest.2012-01-25, Questions from the Community. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2012-01-26 In the end the carrier wasn't replaced by the tempest. Legacy of the Void Development At some point the carrier had a "bombing run" ability that ordered its interceptors to rapidly bombard an area with attacks. It is unknown if this ability was intended for melee or campaign gameplay. The skylord, a Tal'darim carrier variant, was intended for use in the campaign but is unfinished.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Map Editor. (Activision Blizzard) (in English). November 10, 2015 In Patch 4.7, the Graviton Catapult upgrade was removed from the carrier and made baseline. References Category: StarCraft II development